Daily Outrage: Controversial mortgage program recordings destroyed

WHAT: San Diego-Riverside Republican Darrell Issa, ranking GOP member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wants to subpoena any surviving phone conversation recordings of Countrywide Financial Corp.’s controversial VIP loan program — which might have given “sweetheart” deals to public officials.

WHO HAS THE TAPES: Bank of America, which purchased Countrywide in July 2008, said that no recordings were kept when BofA “assumed management … and terminated the VIP program.” Issa wants more information on exactly what happened to the recordings.

WHAT’S BEING DONE: The committee chairman, Brooklyn Democratic Rep. Edolphus Towns, so far has turned down Issa’s subpoena request. Towns had a pair of Countrywide mortgages between 2003 and 2005, but then took his business elsewhere.